Ni hoNi ho ho hao true believers and welcome back! Boy oh boy has it been a long while since I have written one of these blogs and in that time so much has happened; The visit of the boys from Kuitin (For more on that checkout Tim Van Gardinger's blog on this site!), bear wrestling, teaching, making Mike a Thanks giving meal... Well maybe not bear wrestling but a lot has been going on. This blog will simply focus on the holiday season and the period prior and post holiday. So without further ado let's get this show on the road:

T'was two weeks before Christmas, and all through the house, there lacked decorations beyond tinsel and empty tinnies. But woe and behold, what's this I see? The coffee shop put up a Christmas tree! It was plastic and flaky and kind of sh.... different but regardless of this I helped do my bit. There was music blazing, the place was a wonder. I missed home. China sank me under.

The weeks prior to Christmas were a little bit grim in Fukang to say the least. No one was preparing for the big day and only the coffee shop had decorations and music playing. I sat in the coffee shop and helped them decorate and for the first time in China I truly missed home. As we raised up the tree and decorated the shop it brang back memories of home and doing just the same thing with my Mum and Dad and I felt very home sick. That was for a 3 hour period were I sat in the coffee shop feeling gloomy then after that I suddenly recovered, got the spring back in my step and got back into China life.

Teaching in the weeks prior to Christmas is what I like to call 'relaxing'. In essence We did teach them some serious English skills up until the week before Christmas then any pretense that they would learn some serious grammar and vocabulary was dropped in favor of the Christmas lesson. This lesson involved a does Santa exist quiz, Christmas around the world stories and a dialogue where they stood under the board beneath some mistletoe. I was rather fond of that lesson and it was really good fun in all honesty. The kids really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun I think (they also learnt a little, which is a bonus). In English club I started by talking about Elf with the kids and giving them some reviews to read whilst watching short clips. I was being observed by a Chinese teacher but the second she left we gave up working and just watched Elf. They loved it. Finally the week of Christmas (I was working double time until the 24th) we did Mariah Carey's 'All I want for Christmas is you'... sadly the music player broke so I had to sing it, too the great amusement of the kids. But they had a really good time which makes it all worth it really. I love teaching. But boy was I looking forward to Christmas. And I was fortunate enough to have four of them.

You heard that correctly folks, your hero celebrated Christmas four times. SO let the tales begin! Friday the 20th of December we headed out to the Ughyur bar with all our friends; B.K, Rashida, Sam, Mike and more! We drank an awful lot that night and danced an awful lot to! It was an absolutley brilliant night, though most nights at the Ughuyr bar never fails to disappoint. The next day, 21st of December, Me, Stephen and Mike headed to Ulumqi where we decided to stay the night. We checked into a small hotel just near the center; cheeky beggars asked repeatedly asked would me and Stephen like one bed or two with extremely questionable looks on there faces! We went shopping around the department store there and I have never felt so western; We attracted a lot of attention in Fukang but all the young, hip girls and boys working in shops like Calvin Klein were practically falling over us, giggling, staring and in one shop we even had the entire shop scream 'Welcome' (eight staff members). I also acquired a tin of olives (heaven), a tinnie of Iron Bru and some Camembert cheese! It was glorious.

We returned to the hotel and Mike said he would treat us to a Christmas meal so we headed out to a Korean bbq. To some it up this is a buffet where you choose your food, bring it to the table and it is cooked on a hot plate in the center. We were in there for four hours. We ate so much meat but I also had; Kidney, squid tentacles and even field chicken (aka frogs legs). It was absolutely wonderful. Not to mention the fact that beer was included in the price. It was embarrassing how judging they were as they carried away the beer we drank in a crate. Not to mention we were literally the only ones having beer. After that we headed out into the wilds to the 'legendary' Fubar, which used to be ran by westerners but is no a place for hip, passive aggressive Chinese people to show off. Mike bought us some Egg nog and with that we were finished. A night in the hotel and Chinese breakfast later we found ourselves back in Fukang for Christmas number three.

To celebrate number three we simply headed to there house to exchange gifts and have a Christmassy night. We ate home made short bread, drank Milk tulky (?) which was basically a drink which is one part cream, four parts vodka and gave out gifts all whilst listening to Christmas music. It was magical. Then Sarah called (A student of Rashida's, who is Vivian with her Ughyur name, and a good friend) who took us back to the Ughyur bar. I took it easy.

Finally was the big one. Christmas itself. And here we enter what is known in the comic book world as 'an inter-industry crossover'. The night of the 23rd of December we hoped on a train and headed over to none other the... Kuitin! That's right; we headed to Kuitin and arrived at 12 midnight to be met by the dashing Tim Van Gardinger and the equally glorious Marcus Rhodes. We dumped our bags at there apartment and headed to there friend Jaspers bar (for more info on the man himself read Tim's blog!). Jasper, his cousin Ray and there friends all spoke impeccable English and I mean supremely good. There was very little we said they didn't understand and we got on like a house on fire. It was an excellent introduction to Kuitin and I even got a chance to speak some Chinese. I'm alright at this point in that I can communicate with people and occasionally socially chat but it was put to good use that night. We headed back to there place in the wee hours and got some shut eye.

The next day we headed out into the big wide world of Kuitin and boy is it different. Fukang is a town. Kuitin is a city. I could not get over the scale of the place; it was absolutely huge! Tim and Marcus both either had to get Taxis around town or cycle as walking does take an absolute age. We meandered about town seeing the sights; there was a beautiful park with an ice slope we all managed to scale, an underground shopping mall, an outdoor meat, fruit and veg market. There was also a shopping center the equivalent to the on in Urumqi with lots of western branding and even a cinema. Taking all of Kuitin in took a lot of effort; it's so far from home (Fukang). I loved it though and it was refreshing to be somewhere new. Tim's supervisor Rosie invited us all out to eat so we went to a very, very posh hotel buffet with hot pot, western style Chinese food, Ugyur food and more. It was an absolutely gorgeous meal and Rosie was extremely kind to us, she also spoke impeccable English. After this we headed to Jaspers and at Midnight we all belted out 'we wish you a Merry Christmas' before heading out to a night club but that is a story for another, less charity based project blog.

Christmas day itself I was a little rough but it was great fun. We headed to Dashanza where there are four western girls (a south african, the ex-project volunteer, Marcus Girlfriends and a southerner). They had made a Christmas dinner with chicken, gravy, stuffing, potatoes and glazed carrots. It was simply delightful. We spent the day chatting, getting to no each other, lots of people Skyped home (apologizes Mum and Dad) and generally playing games. I really had a great time and it felt a little more like a Christmas at home. After this we headed back; Marcus and Stephen headed to Jaspers whilst me and Tim opted to grab some food and have a chat which was lovely. I went to bed at one AM and got back up at four AM to head back home.

And that is Christmas covered! It was an extremely different Christmas experience but a wonderful one regardless; thanks to all involved for making my first Christmas away from home one of the best and most unique experiences I've ever had the pleasure of having. Now for new year!

The week leading up to it I taught the kids about New year resolutions, traditions and holidays. On new years eve Me, Stephen and Mike were picked up in a car by my wonderful partner in metal Lee. Lee lives in Urumuqi so we were driven by his Dad to Urumqi where we would be staying at his home. On arrival his Dad cooked an absolutely wonderful Pollo dish (oil, rice, fruit and meat) before we settled down to relax. Lee taught me some guitar techniques, I taught him some. I played video games for the first time in five months (Skyrim, Bioshock, left 4 dead, oh how i've missed you!). Later on in the evening I helped make Jaozi (Dumplings) with Lee's parents. I fired some meat, mixed and rolled out some dough and finally spent painstakingly putting the mixture into the dough (I could not get it right). After eating far too much we headed out onto Urumqi.

We found it incredibly hard to find a good place to spend new year ending up at the Fubar for one drink but as I've grown to dislike the place we moved on to a very Chinese bar; there was armor and swords and all sorts of weird stuff hanging all over the walls, beer was a ridiculous price and to sit at a table near the front was 400 RMB (40 pounds) so we grabbed a free table at the back. There was a live band on the stage and at Midnight they invited people to dance. There were roughly 300 people in that place and none of them would. Stephen had been hunting a female dance partner all night prior but finally had to settle on little old me. Like the champions of western society we are we took to that stage and slow danced the agonizing three minutes away clapped and cheered by all. We span, fell into each others arms and awkwardly avoided eye contact. After this we bumped into a lovely American gentleman working in Urumqi and chatted to him before heading back to Lees to play DOTA (oh I had missed that game).

New years day was day was a Baozi breakfast followed by me attempting to talk to Lees mum in Chinese about World War two and then we headed out. Lee lives on a Uni campus as his parents work within the uni and it was such a great place (not to mention we were actually surrounded by people our age for once). We went to a park where I witnessed some of the most dangerous sledging in existence; kids were being sent down ice sloped directly into a small forest of trees and were just smashing into them sending sledge splinters everywhere. Wonderful. Finally we ate at a small uni restaurant before heading home to Fukang. Yet another wonderfully unique experience.

And that's it! The holiday season this year is well and truly one I will never forget. So what else is going on? Well my Chinese spoken continues to develop rapidly and after much mumbling and grumbling I have finally started learning the characters. That's also coming along nicely. I finally started learning some guitar theory, scales and note patterns and have been writing music like a lunatic ever since. As ever, my fitness regime is in full swing although I do need a new, heavier set of weights on two counts; 1. My last set has melted next to the radiator as they were rubber 2. They were two weedy for a steg like me anyway *sarcasm*. But the last big piece of news; on the 11th January I set out on the biggest adventure of my life so far due to the beginning of Spring festival. From the 12th-19th I will be hitting it up in Beijing, from 19th to the 25th its ni hao Harbin and the huge ice festival that is held there and from the 25th-2nd February it's hello Shanghai. Chinese new year is the 28th January some i'm sure Shanghai will be a blast. And finally we should be hitting Jianxi and Gansu provinces but we need to organize that!

So look forward to my next blog dear readers as there will be tales to tell. I guarantee it. Not only that but the next blog will signify officially that I am ovber half way through my year so except another reflections blog.

But until then it's Zaijian from me,

Excelsior!